High mountains can be just as difficult and challenging as low valleys.
Most people tend to associate difficult times in their lives with the idea of being in a valley. Maybe it’s a time of depression. Maybe you’ve lost your job or are struggling financially. Maybe your job performance is just suffering. Or maybe you have neglected your walk with God and now you feel distant.
And it’s true. These seasons are hard. Terribly hard. You don’t know if there will ever be a light at the end of the tunnel. And if it’s coming, it can’t come quickly enough.
But there’s a truth no one ever seems to mention: climbing the mountain is also challenging. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a mountaintop you suddenly arrive at with no work involved. It’s the base of the mountain that you now have to climb. And one that you’ll always be climbing.
The times of success in your life and the times when God is blessing you can be just as challenging as the times in the valley. Just in a different way, because now you’re going uphill.
And even when you make it to the so-called mountaintop, it isn’t easy there either. For example, this past Christmas, we saw over 1100 people receive Christ in three days. A definite mountaintop. And then we had to follow up with them and maintain our momentum to reach even more people. Still challenging.
Here’s the truth we want to avoid at all costs:
It’s all hard.
The valleys and the mountains. The low points and getting to the high points and staying at the high points. In the valley you’re trying to survive. And in the mountains you’re trying to thrive. Neither is a walk in the park.
That’s not very encouraging. So why share it?
Because it’s reality. Because it confronts an inane line of thinking that many of us cling to: that life is going to one day get to the point where it’s easy. If that’s what we’re waiting for, we’re going to be waiting a long time.
The goal of life isn’t to make it to a point where we can breathe easy. It’s to get to heaven breathless. Tired because we’ve been faithfully and passionately following God – through valleys and mountains.
So yes, it’s always hard. But our reward in the future makes it worth it. We’ll rest then. And we’ll push on now.
Besides, God is doing more in you and through you in your mountains and valleys than you can possibly imagine. That alone should give you joy. No matter where you’re at.
